Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) performed well in the Niche 2025 rankings. Three schools in the district are ranked #1 in Maryland for their grade levels. Poolesville High School is ranked in the top spot for high schools, Cabin John Middle School is #1 for middle schools, and Westbrook Elementary is the highest ranked for elementary schools. These rankings indicate that MCPS schools are strong in academics, teacher quality, and college prep, and MCPS dedicated a page on their website to promote these rankings.

According to Niche, Sherwood is ranked highly in several categories among Maryland public high schools, including academics, athletics, teachers, programs, and diversity. It is 25 out of 217 for Best Public High Schools in Maryland, 27 for Best College Prep High Schools, and 34 for Best High Schools for Athletes. Sherwood also ranks 39 for Best Public High School Teachers and 75 for Best High Schools for STEM. The school is also 81 for Most Diverse Public High Schools in Maryland.

Assistant Principal Tamara Jennings notes reasons for MCPS success in the rankings, including data and feedback collection. “School improvement is always the topic of conversation,” said Jennings. “Schools use a variety of data points to set meaningful and measurable goals for improvement. In addition, at Sherwood, we involve students and parents in the school improvement process by collecting voice data and allowing these stakeholders to provide input on our School Improvement Plan.”

Although MCPS schools perform well in the rankings, some question whether the Niche system is fair, equitable, or even accurate. Schools that tend to perform well are typically wealthier; for instance, affluent schools located in Bethesda and Potomac, such as Whitman, Winston Churchill, and Walter Johnson, consistently have high ratings.

Private schools are also included in rankings. Good Counsel, for instance, received a grade of A+ overall and grades of A+ on most of the individual sections as well. Similar to how they formulate grades for public schools, Niche also utilizes analysis and data to determine the grades for private schools. Private schools can additionally pay Niche to promote them on the website.

Niche uses recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. When ranking schools and compiling a value grade, Niche considers factors such as test scores, diversity, college preparation, teacher quality, and information from student and alumni surveys. For example, Poolesville got an A+ in academics, though Niche does not appear to take into account or acknowledge that Poolesville has a highly selective magnet program that students nationwide can apply.

Some other MCPS schools such as Walt Whitman and Poolesville, however, dropped in other rankings. The U.S. News & World Report indicates that Whitman is no longer in the top 100 internationally, and Poolsevile likewise dropped slightly. Still, the Niche rankings show that MCPS schools are still top-ranked, with Poolesville coming in 32 nationally, Cabin John 465, and Westbrook 908. Elite private schools or public ones with magnet programs usually dominate the top spots.

Niche also contains a Reviews section where users can voluntarily provide a rating and feedback. Sherwood currently has 380 reviews dating back 10 years. Niche does not explain to users how much these factor into a school’s grade.While Niche leads the market in linking schools and colleges with students and families and has millions of ratings, biases persist nevertheless. By utilizing information from current student and alumni surveys, information is likely biased due to the vast difference in experiences between individuals. Some may favor their school strongly or denounce it without regard for alternate experiences of other individuals. The data collected, moreover, may be inaccurate if the root source is faulty, and old rankings become out of date and can rapidly change. Spams and bot reviews are prevalent as well.

It is impossible for users on the Niche website to know where information came from and attain the full ratio of considered factors. Niche is therefore a great resource overall for students and families at the surface level, but people should remain wary and look for other corroborating sources such as US News and Princeton Review before formulating judgements about schools.